An Innovative Approach to Treating Combat Veterans with PTSD at Risk for Suicide

Suicide rates among military personnel had a significant drop in 2013, but there is no evidence of a drop among veterans. The problem of suicide among combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains a source of concern. The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are now calling for innovative treatment approaches to the problem. A short‐term psychodynamic therapy presented here may be able to fill that need by dissipating the guilt from veterans' combat‐related actions that leads to suicidal behavior. The treatment showed promise of success with veterans of the war in Vietnam. Preliminary work with combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan indicates that it may be equally successful in treating them. Basic aspects of the psychodynamic approach could be incorporated into current therapies and should improve their ability to treat veterans with PTSD at risk for suicide.     

Assisted Suicide,Euthanasia, and Suicide Prevention: The Implications of the Dutch Experience

What impact would legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia have on our ability to treat suicidal patients and to prevent suicide? Information from a study of the Dutch experience illustrates how legal sanction promotes a culture that transforms suicide into assisted suicide and euthanasia and encourages patients and doctors to see choosing death as a preferred way of dealing with serious or terminal illness. The extension of the right to euthanasia to those who are not physically ill further complicates the problem. So too does the tendency of doctors in such a culture to begin to feel that they can make decisions about ending the life of competent terminally ill patients without consulting the patient. “Normalizing” suicide as a medical option lays the groundwork for a society that turns euthanasia into a “cure” for suicidal depression.     

Moritz Schlick

Ohne ZusammenfassungDiefer Nachruf auf Moritz Schlick, der anläßlich der erften Wiederkehr feines Todestages erfcheinen follte, kommt infolge unvorhergefehener Umftände erft jetzt zum Abdruck.     

The effects of early handling on the partial reinforcement extinction effect and the partial punishment effect in male and female rats

Handled (Day 1-22) and non-handled infantile Wistar rats were tested in maturity for the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) and the partial punishment effect (PPE). In Experiments 1 and 2, mature male and female rats were trained to run in an alley for food reward on a 1-trial/day schedule. In the PREE paradigm (Experiment 1), the partially reinforced group (PRF) received reinforcement on a quasi-random 50% schedule, while the continuously reinforced group (CRF) received reinforcement on every trial. In the test stage, both groups were given extinction training. In the PPE paradigm (Experiment 2), the partially punished (PP) group received, together with continuous reinforcement, shocks on a quasirandom 50% schedule, while the continuously reinforced group was reinforced on every trial. In test, all animals were given both reinforcement and shock on every trial. In Experiment 1, PREE—i.e. increased resistance to extinction in the PRF as compared to the CRF group—was more pronounced in the handled animals. More specifically, no PREE was obtained in the non-handled males, and in the non-handled females the PREE was reduced compared to the handled females. The results of Experiment 2 revealed no effect of handling or sex on PPE, that is, increased resistance to punishment in the PP group as compared to the CRF group was evident in all four conditions. In Experiment 3, handled and non-handled male rats were tested for the PREE using a multi-trial procedure in an operant chamber. PREE was obtained in the handled but not in the non-handled animals. The implications of these results for the differential effects of handling on male and female rats and the distinction between the PREE and PPE paradigms are discussed.